People who read way too much on the internet (like me) learn to look for red flags and dismiss any "facts" that seem sketchy. That's a good thing. Then there's Tom Scott (previously at Neatorama), who makes a living by going there and finding out for himself whether something that sounds strange is true or not. So he went to Warsaw to find out if the city uses clams to monitor water quality. It's true! And the process they use is quite interesting. If the water is good, they will open their shells to bathe in it. If something is wrong, they will close up to protect themselves. It's like an early warning system that will alert human experts if the water needs more thorough testing.

The people who run the waterworks also refer to the clams as their colleagues. Instead of eating them after their stint has ended, they release them into the wild. I bet those folks never eat clams.

Gene Roddenberry's original pitch for the TV series Star Trek is enshrined online. The document, dated March 11, 1964, envisions the starship the SS Yorktown visiting the possibly three million planets that contain intelligent life similar to ours. The key to this concept is that a tiny fraction of such planets would have an evolution similar to our own, with just enough differences to make an interesting story. Examples include a world that has already been devastated by nuclear war, another in which women keep men as pets, one that is going through the medieval era, and one where the real intelligent beings are cows. The regular cast of characters could find themselves in a historical scene, or alternate history, or a futuristic society... plus there's always the possibility of a straight-up alien world.

The document describes the main characters, which were changed quite a bit before the show made it to air. The character who became Mr. Spock was named "Mr. Spook," had red skin, and was described as rather satanic-looking. The ship's navigator was a South American named José Ortegas. The second in command was an emotionless woman. 

But the best part of the pitch are the many proposed episodes. Some you will recognize as stories that were used, while others are so off-the-wall they were never heard of again. And there are some you can see were altered quite a bit from the original concept before production. But the name Star Trek was already perfect. -via Boing Boing

How else would you expect us to give children candy on Halloween? FIRE MISSION!!!
🇺🇸 💥 🎃 👻 🍬 🍭 🍫 🍪
💥Blast credit: 1-78 FA#happyhalloween #motivationmonday @178FABN1 @USArmy @TRADOC @6_fires @7Fires3 @USAFAS @U_artillery @75thFA_BDE @434FA_BDE @428THBDE @3ADABDE pic.twitter.com/j8ip6xG4pJ

— US Army Fort Sill (@OfficialFtSill) October 31, 2022

I think that it's a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which is currently in use by Ukrainian forces against the invading Russians.

At Fort Sills, Oklahoma, home to America's field artillery, the US Army is deploying at least one unit to propel Halloween candy to local trick-or-treaters. If I interpret the tweet correctly, it's from the first battalion of the 78th Field Artillery Regiment.

-via Super Punch

English is a peculiar language, what with its many letters that are left silent. To make pronunciation even more challenging, which letters are silent is not always consistent. This is often due to the introduction of words from foreign tongues, such as French and Texan.

Internet comedian Matt Colbo addresses the complexity of English pronunciation by imagining an encounter in the woods with an alternate universe version of himself--one from a universe in which every letter is pronounced.

As far as encounters alone in the woods with versions of yourself from alternate universes, that's a pretty safe encounter.

CONTENT WARNING: FOUL LANGUAGE.

-via Nag on the Lake

Broken Peach puts a little extra pizzazz in their songs for Halloween. Last year they graced the world with a slasher version of "Tainted Love," and this year we get "Don't You Want Me," originally by The Human League. If you're not familiar with the song from 1982, you'll still recognize the story as that from the many movie versions of A Star Is Born. Broken Peach also invites you to listen to their full concert called The Night of the Halloween Specials, which was recorded live in one take. -via Metafilter

Sleepwalking is totally separate from acting out one's dreams. It is more like zombie behavior. Yes, sleepwalking occurs in the deepest part of sleep, and we don't have control over what we do when sleepwalking. So how do we do it? That's the creepy part. We have a lot of behaviors that don't require conscious control, including walking, eating, and even driving while we're asleep! You know how your mind sometimes drifts off while you're driving and you end up at some familiar location that wasn't where you were going? That's how we act when we sleepwalk, but its even more dangerous because we are really asleep, often with our eyes closed. This TED-Ed lesson from Emmanuel During explains what is really happening during a sleepwalking incident.

We know about haunted houses, asylums, hospitals, hotels, castles, and other buildings, but nature has its own legends of horror that scare people even today. Forests can be scary even without ghost stories attached to them, and sometimes it's even a single tree that is said to be haunted, like the haunted apple tree in Douglass, Massachusetts.

Legend says that, in the 1800s, a traveling peddler stopped to rest under this apple tree, and someone—likely the orchard owner himself—slashed the peddler’s throat and killed him. The victim’s spirit haunted the murderer, following him everywhere, until the man moved away to escape it. Passersby later reported seeing apparition standing under the apple tree, holding its throat and crying shrilly. The flesh of the apples grown on this tree are stained red, reminiscent of the blood that gushed from the peddler’s neck.

Read about ten such haunted trees and forests and the legends behind them at Mental Floss.

Mondrian painting has been hanging upside down for 75 years https://t.co/TKyyo0g84H

— The Guardian (@guardian) October 28, 2022

In 1941, the Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian painted this untitled work, which was first displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1945, and then the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany.

Recently, curator Susanne Meyer-Büser researched Mondrian’s work to prepare for an upcoming exhibition on his work. She determined that Mondrian tended to put thicker lines at the top of his paintings. Furthermore, a photograph of Mondrian working on this piece shows with it rotated from its usual direction on his easel.

Thus, this painting certainly upside down—and had been for over 75 years.

The Guardian reports that the exhibition, which will open today, will not reflect this new conclusion. The Mondrian piece will continue to be hung in its traditional orientation—upside down.

-via Dave Barry

Polaris Dawn is a planned private space mission from SpaceX that may be launched as early as March of 2023. The four astronauts training for the mission are pictured above, but if you look long enough, you'll see that their left eyes do not match their right eyes. It's not Photoshop; those are contact lenses, developed for a specific science reason.

The University of Colorado has been studying a condition called spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS). That's when people who spend time in space experience swollen optic nerves and changes in the eye's shape. These hi-tech contact lenses equipped with micro-sensors will measure the changes in the eye as space flight proceeds. It is hoped that the data will test the theory that shifting fluid is responsible for SANS.  

Eye will be back…for research. Polaris Dawn will carry with us on our mission 38 experiments from 23 partner institutions, including this device that measures intraocular pressure through a contact lens. See https://t.co/VHKqpel7BB for more! pic.twitter.com/QBGqziW4Ij

— Anna Menon (@annawmenon) October 24, 2022

-via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Polaris Dawn)

👻 That "something strange in your neighborhood" turns out to be a clever promo by Vacasa. The vacation rental company transformed an old 1900's firehouse in Portland, Oregon into the iconic Ghostbusters Firehouse. If you're lucky, you can rent it out (on Halloween weekend, of course) for $19.84 per night - in honor of the 1984 release of the blockbuster movie. No word whether there'd be ghosts inside.

🏠 From the outside, this house looks normal enough ... but wait till you see the inside! 👀

🤖 This ugly sweater is an invisibility cloak that makes you invisible to AI. Take that, Skynet!

🤣 What happens when a teenager swallowed a squeaker from a dog's squeaky toy?

🎭 Great Scott! Back to the Future is back ... to Broadway! Behold, Back to the Future: The Musical.

🦔 These cute streaked tenrecs of Madagascar are the only known mammals that communicate via stridulation. Stridu-what-now? We can explain ... but it's so weird that you should just watch it for yourself.

👹 Friends don't lie, these are truly 10 Amazing Stranger Things-inspired Fan Art T-Shirts.

🎃 ICYMI: 10 Halloween T-Shirts that are Spooky and Fun

Please check out our new sites: Pop Culturista, Pictojam, Homes & Hues, Infinite 1UP, Supa Fluffy, Shirt Stack, Laughosaurus and Spooky Daily. Thank you!

(Images: Vacasa and Good Idea Ryan & DAObiwan)

The feeling of fear can be pretty unpleasant, but we developed it for a reason. That scary feeling is a warning that things are not right, and we need to flee or hide or fight or do something for our own safety. But humans also seek out fear experiences, from climbing trees to watching scary movies to bungee jumping, for the thrill of fear they give us. Is that just for the adrenaline rush or is there a benefit to seeking out fear?

The scientists at the Recreational Fear Lab in Denmark think it may be an instinctive educational technique. Just the right amount of fear, in a fairly controlled situation, helps us learn to deal with real world fear. One study shows that horror movie buffs fared better psychologically during the COVID-19 lockdown than those who never watched scary films. Maybe a regular dose of moderate fear helps us to cope with those feelings, or learn to control them. Read more about the effects of recreational fear at Smithsonian.

Read more about the Recreational Fear Lab and its haunted attraction from Dystopia Entertainment at Atlas Obscura.

My friend's sister's Halloween costume is too good not to share pic.twitter.com/4V0eMy7CIm

— Steph (@EristicEnigma) October 26, 2022

Some environmental activists are keeping busy lately by vandalizing famous works of art and/or gluing themselves in public places, such as roadways or convention centers. A couple weeks ago, two such activists threw tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, then glued themselves to the wall on which the painting hung.

The good news from that incident is that the precious painting is safe. It was protected by a sheet of glass.

An acquaintance of Twitter user @EristicEnigma was inspired by the incident to make this amusing Halloween costume. She's dressed as the defaced painting.

-via Super Punch

Bar-tailed godwits are known for their spectacularly long flights during their annual migration. The haul from Alaska to Tasmania is brutal, but #234684 was up for the task, even though he lost half of his bodyweight during the ordeal.

ABC News reports that for 11 days, without interruption, #234684 flew 8,426 miles, which is about 311 miles longer than the previous record for a bird migration, which was also held by a bar-tailed godwit. Scientists were able to track his movements with an electronic device.

#234684 didn't rest or feed. That's because godwits don't have webbed feet. If they land in the water, they die because they can't get airborne again. And as most of these godwits weigh just under a pound, they don't have a lot of body fat to burn through. So they just have to persevere, as #234684 did.

-via Massimo

This is not just a LEGO Ferris wheel, which would be impressive by itself. This one loads and unloads sports balls (um, "passengers") by machine into the 64 carriages as it goes along. Designing this and keeping it going in sync is quite an accomplishment! Berthil van Beek built this contraption for the Eurobricks TC23 competition. Just watching this machine do its thing is soothing and satisfying. We also get an idea of the work involved. When van Beek loads 64 balls and finds that two fell along the way, he redesigns the mechanism to make sure that doesn't happen again. I would be surprised if I got one to load properly! -via Geeks Are Sexy

In the glorious ending of The Shawshank Redemption, Warden Norton realizes that Andy Dufresne has not only escaped from prison, but trapped him in his own. He opens his safe and finds Andy Dufresne's Bible inside. It's inscribed with a simple message:

Dear Warden,

You were right. Salvation lay within.

Andy Dufresne

Norton turns to the Book of Exodus, where pages have been hollowed out to hide Andy's rock hammer--the one that he used to tunnel out of the prison.

That prop Bible used in the film will go on auction on November 3. Fine Books Magazine expects that it will sell for perhaps $115,000-$172,000 USD. That sale will also feature the prop newspaper that breaks the story about Warden Norton's corruption.

-via John Overholt | Photo: Propstore Auction